LAKEPORT – On Tuesday the Lakeport City Council is expected to finally take up a request to operate a bed and breakfast on 16^th Street.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park Street.

Gregory Gill is asking the council to allow him to operate the bed and breakfast at 2-16^th Street.

City planning staff recommended approval of Gill's use permit request for the business; however, the Planning Decision had a tie vote on the issue in April, which – according to city municipal code – results in a denial.

Gill's case has been scheduled to go to the council during previous occasions but the matter has been continued. It also appeared to have been delayed as the council worked through issues relating to updated wording of city ordinances relating to bed and breakfast operations.

In other council business Tuesday, Mark Brannigan, director of the city's utilities and community development departments, is asking the council to exempt the utility department from a citywide hiring freeze instituted last month so that he can hire a replacement for the recently vacated water operations supervisor position. Brannigan's report to the council notes the position is included in this year's budget.

Brannigan's report says the utility department terminated its water operations supervisor on Sept. 4. “To maintain operations while this position is vacant, the water division is considering the shutdown of the surface water treatment facility,” Brannigan wrote.

He said the department's water division operates and maintains a complex Grade-T4 surface water treatment facility and four wells with chlorine treatment, and also is responsible for monitoring and testing of water quality throughout the system, and the reading, operation and maintenance of 2,300 metered accounts throughout the city.

State law requires that treatment facilities be run by personnel with appropriate certifications, and Brannigan reports that the remaining two operators don't have those qualifications. With the position vacant, it also adds increases the utilities superintendent's workload.

Public Works Superintendent Doug Grider will take his own request to the council Tuesday; he's requesting approval of a cell phone stipend of $30 each for him and his foreman.

Grider's report notes that during the June budgeting process he agreed to cancel the cell phones he and his foreman use and instead use their own personal phones as a cost saving measure. However, the result is that they're expending their own money to cover extra usage on the phones, because both men are on call 24 hours a day.

Even with the additional $60 cost to the city each month, Grider's report notes that it is still less expensive than what the city was previously paying.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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